BMW, GM & Daimler Chrysler

BMW recently announced its sales figures, which is one of the best in last 7 years. Sales for BMW cars increased by 23% compared to last year. The remodeled 3 series and 1 series where best sellers. With these announcements, BMW also announced that it is going to join in a combined effort with its rival’s German based carmaker Daimler Chrysler and General Motors to develop hybrid engines.


The tie up between 3 companies, which are fierce rivals otherwise, is only due to the overwhelming success of Toyota hybrid cars. These companies know that they can't compete going alone in a short period.

Hybrid cars need less gas to run due to its smaller engines, battery power assist, and innovative technology. The joint research for this project is going to be held in Troy, Michigan. These 3 companies said that their joint effort is going to bring faster results for their proposed "two-mode" system, which according to them is better, then that used by Toyota.

Porsche a German based company is also likely to join this group in a joint effort. Daimler Chrysler and GM have already expressed their plans of releasing their first hybrid powered vehicles by 2007.

Two mode system which is going to be driven by electric power or both gas and electric power together is said to be superior and will have improved power, range and fuel economy.

Recently two leading German components traders, Continental and ZF Friedrichshafen, announced that they would together build up a hybrid power train of their own by 2007.

Date of this item added : 2005-09-14